(NEW YORK) — Travelers reeling from a summer of hectic travel — with busy airports, scores of cancellations and soaring airline fees — might see some relief in the coming months, as fall approaches.
Travel experts expect flight prices to drop as the summer months wane, with some predicting domestic round-trip ticket prices could drop below $300 on average this fall.
“Airfares really did shoot up in the spring. [They] went up 12% in March, 19% in April, another 12% in May, it wasn’t just your imagination,” Scott Keyes, the founder of Scott’s Cheap Flights, told ABC News. “But the good news: In the last inflation report, airfare actually fell 2%, and I think it’s going to fall even further in the next one.”
According to data from travel booking platform Hopper, average domestic ticket prices could fall almost $150 in the coming months. The average price of a domestic roundtrip flight right now is about $348, but come mid-September, that average could fall to about $298.
For example, Hopper estimates at a round-trip ticket from New York to Los Angeles right now would cost $475, but in mid-September, it is only expected to cost $326.
And these deals can be found for international travelers, too. Scott’s Cheap Flights says that a round-trip fare from Chicago to Paris now is almost three times more expensive than the $489 you would pay in October.
Keyes recommends that travelers looking to get those prices book soon, because one to three months before your trip is the “Goldilocks window” for scoring good deals.
“If you hold off until the final couple of weeks before your trip, chances are you’re going to be stuck with some pretty expensive flights,” Keyes said. “But if you book a month in advance, two months in advance, ideally even three months in advance, [you’re] much more likely to see one of those great deals.”
Another way to get the best deal according to Keyes is to be flexible with your travel plans. He says to always check other airports close to your destination and be flexible with days you travel.
Hopper also recommends that you check different carriers for good deals and to book early in the day in case of cancellations or delays.
ABC News’ Amanda Maile contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — A West Virginia man charged in the Jan. 6 assault of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick pleaded guilty Wednesday to two misdemeanor charges.
George Tanios was arrested two months after the Jan. 6 attack, along with Julian Khater, who investigators identified in videos as having deployed bear spray against three officers outside of the Capitol, including Sicknick.
Sicknick died the day after the riot of natural causes after suffering at least two strokes, according to the Washington, D.C., medical examiner’s office.
Tanios pleaded guilty Wednesday to entering and remaining on restricted grounds, and disorderly and disruptive conduct on restricted grounds.
Khater has pleaded not guilty to multiple felony charges stemming from the alleged assault, and is set to go on trial in October.
Prosecutors said in Wednesday’s hearing they have also extended a plea offer to Khater and they continue to negotiate with his counsel, but they warned that the offer will expire by Aug. 17.
Khater could face between 78 and 97 months behind bars as part of his sentence if he were to accept the plea deal of two counts of felony assaults on officers, prosecutors said.
That amount would be more than a year longer than the two harshest sentences given to any Capitol rioters thus far.
As part of his plea deal with prosecutors, Tanios faces a potential range of 0-6 months behind bars, though he has already served five months in pre-trial detention following his arrest, for which he would receive credit.
In their original affidavit against Khater and Tanios, investigators cited open source videos that they said showed Khater at one point telling Tanios “Give me that bear s—” before reaching into a backpack Tanios was wearing.
Tanios then responded, “Hold on, hold on, not yet, not yet … it’s still early.”
“This verbal exchange between Khater and Tanios, together with Khater’s retrieval of the spray can from Tanios, reveals that the two were working in concert and had a plan to use the toxic spray against law enforcement,” the charging documents said.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The Russian military has since launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, capturing the strategic port city of Mariupol and securing a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jul 27, 2:51 PM EDT
Blinken and Lavrov to discuss US proposal to free Griner and Whelan
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he plans to speak with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the coming days, marking the first time the two leaders will speak since the war began.
Blinken said a critical topic of discussion would be securing the freedom of detained Americans Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner, revealing that the U.S. has already put forward a plan to accomplish that.
“We put a substantial proposal on the table weeks ago to facilitate their release. Our governments have communicated repeatedly and directly on that proposal, and I’ll use the conversation to follow up personally and I hope move us toward a resolution,” Blinken said.
“I can’t and won’t get into any of the details of what we’ve proposed to the Russians over the course of some many weeks now,” Blinken said.
Blinken said President Joe Biden played an active role in crafting the proposal for Griner and Whelan.
Blinken also stressed, “My call with Foreign Minister Lavrov will not be a negotiation about Ukraine,” adding, “Any negotiation regarding Ukraine is for its government and people to determine.”
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Jul 27, 9:32 AM EDT
Ukraine strikes key bridge in Russia-held Kherson
Ukrainian forces struck a strategic bridge in the Russian-occupied city of Kherson early Wednesday, according to local officials.
High-precision missile strikes by the Ukrainian military damaged the Antonivskiy bridge, forcing the occupied authorities to close the structure to civilian traffic. The mile-long bridge across the Dnieper River is an essential artery used by Moscow to supply its troops occupying southern Ukraine.
“Strikes were delivered on the bridge, on its road. The bridge is currently closed to the civilian population,” Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Moscow-appointed administration for the Kherson region, told local media on Wednesday.
The bridge’s pillars and spans were still intact as of Wednesday morning, according to Stremousov.
“It is simply that the number of holes on the road has increased. The strike on the bridge has affected only the civilian population,” he added.
According to Stremousov, Ukrainian forces hit the bridge with High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) supplied by the United States. He said ferry crossings across the Dnieper River will be organized during the bridge’s restoration, and that traffic will resume in the near future.
“We have prepared a pontoon bridge. We have a ferry link,” he told local media.
Earlier on Wednesday, Ukrainian military officials said the number of Russian soldiers killed in the war has surpassed 40,000, just more than five months after Russia launched its invasion of neighboring Ukraine in late February.
(WASHINGTON) — Republican leaders who worry that Donald Trump could hurt their midterm chances by announcing a presidential run too soon are hoping he’ll be dissuaded from doing so by the prospect of losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal payments, according to an RNC official.
Since October 2021, the Republican National Committee has paid nearly $2 million to law firms representing Trump as part of his defense against personal litigation and government investigations.
But an RNC official told ABC News that as soon as Trump would announce he is running for president, the payments would stop because the party has a “neutrality policy” that prohibits it from taking sides in the presidential primary.
In January, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said, “The party has to stay neutral.”
“I’m not telling anybody to run or not to run in 2024,” she added. However she has since reaffirmed that Trump “still leads the party.”
RNC officials would not comment on the record for this story. Representatives for Trump also declined to comment.
This isn’t the first time that legal bills have been seen as possible leverage over Trump.
According to the book “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show,” by ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl, in the final days of Trump’s presidency, Trump told McDaniel he was leaving the GOP and creating his own political party — only to back down after McDaniel made it clear to Trump that the party would stop paying his legal bills for his post-election challenges and take other steps that would cost him financially.
Both Trump and McDaniel have denied the story.
According to the RNC’s most recent financial disclosure to the Federal Elections Commission, from October 2021 through June of this year, the RNC paid at least $1.73 million to three law firms representing Trump, including firms that are defending him in investigations into his personal family business in New York. Last month alone, the RNC paid $50,000 to a law firm representing Trump in June.
The latest tally tops the $1.6 million maximum figure that the Republican Party’s executive committee reportedly voted to cover for Trump’s personal legal bills during an RNC meeting last year, a figure that The Washington Post, which first reported on the agreement in December, wrote could increase further with the party executive committee’s approval.
The RNC reported payments to law firms representing Trump as recently as mid-June, indicating the party leadership’s unfettered support for the former president and heightening critics’ concerns about the party’s neutrality ahead of the 2024 presidential primary season.
“I don’t think there’s been any effort” by the RNC to remain neutral, longtime Republican donor and Canary LLC CEO Dan Eberhart told ABC News. “This is a symbiotic relationship.”
“The RNC needs Trump or Trump surrogates or Trump’s likeness to raise money, and Trump wants them to continue paying his bills and be as pro-Trump as possible,” Eberhart said. “So neither is in a hurry to cut the umbilical cord.”
The RNC has continued to fundraise off of Trump’s name in its emails to supporters, touting a so-called “Trump Life Membership,” boosting his social media platform, and, most recently, promoting Trump’s first visit to Washington, D.C., since January of last year. Other potential 2024 presidential candidates and key party figures like former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have not received the same spotlight as Trump, experts say.
Eberhart said the current relationship between Trump and the RNC is putting other potential 2024 presidential candidates at an “absolute disadvantage.”
“Other Republican candidates seeking the Republican nomination for president have good reason to worry that the party apparatus is rigged against them in its unwavering support for Trump,” echoed Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist at the progressive government-watchdog group Public Citizen.
“By paying Trump’s extensive legal bills, the RNC is indirectly helping finance the Trump campaign,” Holman said. “And given the history of the RNC zealously defending Trump, other Republican candidates should expect that they are not just running against Trump, they are also running against the Republican Party.”
Eberhart said “it’s an open secret” within the Republican Party that “nobody wants Trump to announce his candidacy until after the midterms.”
“Everyone thinks it’ll scramble the midterms and we could potentially destroy the advantage we have” if Trump would announce too early, Eberhart said. “It makes Trump more relevant and gives the Dems potentially a way to reset the race.”
RNC spokesperson Emma Vaughn, who declined to comment on the RNC’s recent legal payments to firms representing Trump, had previously told ABC News that “as a leader of our party, defending President Trump and his record of achievement is critical to the GOP.”
“It is entirely appropriate for the RNC to continue assisting in fighting back against the Democrats’ never-ending witch hunt and attacks on him,” Vaughn told ABC News in January, in response to questions about the party’s earlier legal payments for Trump.
The Republican Party committee has described the legal payments for Trump as support for the former president against political attacks against him. But at least two of the three firms that have been paid on behalf of Trump are involved in legal work on behalf of the former president regarding investigations against his personal businesses by the New York attorney general and Manhattan district attorney.
Although both officials are Democrats, they have both said their probes are not politically motivated.
In all, the $1.7 million paid in total to the three firms includes more than $862,000 paid to NechelesLaw LLP, $516,000 paid to Fischetti & Malgieri LLP, and $350,000 paid to van der Veen, Hartshorn and Levin, the RNC’s disclosure filings show. The most recent payments are $50,440 to Fischetti & Malgieri LLP in mid-June and $186,182 to NechelesLaw LLP in May.
Neither NechelesLaw LLP, Fischetti & Malgieri LLP, or van der Veen, Hartshorn and Levin responded to ABC News’ requests for comment.
The RNC is reportedly not covering Trump’s legal bills related to the House special committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. But as previously reported by ABC News, Trump’s leadership PAC, Save America, and his presidential committee-turned-PAC Make America Great Again PAC have been footing legal bills for witnesses involved in legal battles related to the events of Jan. 6, which has raised concerns about witness coercion from Jan. 6 committee members and legal experts.
Holman, the watchdog group lobbyist, said regulations that would govern legal expense funds for executive branch officials and candidates have been proposed to the Office of Government Ethics. Among the proposals are regulations that would enforce contribution limits, prohibit certain funding sources, and require the full disclosure of where money comes from and how it is spent.
“Until OGE finalizes these rules, however, Trump and the RNC legally can do almost whatever they want to pay for Trump’s legal woes and largely evade meaningful disclosure of the sources and expenditures of these funds,” Holman said.
(NEW YORK) — Smokers and vapers are more likely to have a severe case of COVID-19 or die of the disease, a new study finds.
People who reported use of tobacco products prior to their hospitalization were 39% more likely to be put on mechanical ventilation than non-smokers.
What’s more, they were 45% more likely to die.
Although it’s well-known that smoking and vaping damages the lungs and suppresses the immune system, making people more susceptible to COVID-19 and less likely to fight off the illness, there is limited information on the link between smoking and COVID-19 severity.
For the study, published in scientific journal PLOS One, the team looked at data from the American Heart Association COVID-19 Cardiovascular Disease registry including more than 4,000 people over age 18 who were hospitalized with COVID-19 between January 2020 and March 2021.
People were classified as smokers if they reported current use of traditional cigarettes or e-cigarettes. However, the study did not evaluate if there was a difference in risk level between those who vape versus those who smoke.
Researchers — from the AHA Tobacco Regulation Center and the University of Louisville, in Kentucky — found smoking or vaping were linked to more COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations regardless of the patients’ age, sex, race/ethnicity or medical history.
However, some subgroups were more likely to be at risk of death from COVID-19 than others.
Smokers between ages 18 and 59 were more likely to die from the diseases than those who are age 60 and older, despite COVID’s propensity to affect the elderly.
Additionally, white smokers had a higher risk of COVID death than Black and Hispanic patients, groups that have been disproportionately affected by the virus and its complications. However, Hispanic patients were more likely to be put on a ventilator.
Smoking was also linked to a higher risk of death among smokers with underlying conditions such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension and chronic kidney disease as well as those receiving anticoagulants before their hospitalization.
“In general, people who smoke or vape tend to have a higher prevalence of other health conditions and risk factors that could play a role in how they are impacted by COVID-19,” first author Dr. Aruni Bhatangar, a professor of medicine, biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Louisville, said in a statement. “These findings provide the clearest evidence to date that people who smoke or vape have a higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 and dying as a result of [COVID] infection.”
The team says its study has some limitations including lack of complete smoking history for participants and no information on how many cigarettes or other tobacco products the patients used per day or for how many years.
The study’s authors did not immediately reply to ABC News’ request for comment.
(ST. PAUL, Minn.) — Two former police officers convicted on federal charges in the death of George Floyd were both sentenced Wednesday to prison terms.
Former Minneapolis police officers J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao were sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson in back-to-back hearings.
Magnuson, who noted that Kueng was a rookie cop at the time of Floyd’s death, sentenced him to serve three years in federal prison, followed by two years of supervised release, according to St. Paul ABC affiliate KSTP.
In a separate hearing, Magnuson sentenced Thao, who had been a nine-year veteran of the Minneapolis Police Department at the time of Floyd’s death, to 3 1/2 years in prison, also followed by two years of supervised release, KSTP reported.
Kueng was sentenced first in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Prior to sentencing Kueng, Floyd’s cousin Sabrina Montgomery and his girlfriend, Courtney Ross, gave victim impact statements.
Ross addressed Kueng directly with compassion, telling him, “This sentence will not define you,” and urging him to “define your purpose,” KSTP reported.
“This does not mean you cannot find your footing to stand up for what’s right in the future,” Ross told Kueng.
Montgomery asked Magnuson to give both Kueng and Thao the maximum sentence.
“All of these men deserve to serve longer sentences,” Montgomery said, according to KSTP. “The system these officers operated in is flawed, but again, where is their humanity?”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Manda Sertich told Magnuson that Kueng, who was a rookie cop at the time of Floyd’s death, admitted during his trial testimony that he was aware that it was his duty to intervene, but he failed to act.
“All he had to do per MPD policy was attempt to intervene … but he didn’t say a word. Not one word,” Sertich said, according to KSTP.
Kueng declined to make a statement in court before he was sentenced. But his attorney, Thomas Plunkett, spoke on his behalf, telling Magnuson, “He’s a nice young man that attempted to help the community by taking on a difficult role … and now he’s being sentenced for that.”
Both Kueng, 28, and Thao, 35, were convicted by a federal jury in February along with their former police colleague Thomas Lane, 39, who received a sentence last week of 2 1/2 years in prison for violating Floyd’s civil rights.
Federal prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 6 1/2 years for Lane, which according to federal sentencing guidelines, was the maximum.
All three men were convicted of using the “color of the law,” or their positions as police officers, to deprive Floyd of his civil rights by willfully being indifferent to his serious medical needs.
During Thao’s sentencing hearing, Montgomery again asked for the maximum sentence. Ross also spoke at Thao’s sentencing, but did not offer him words of encouragement like she did when she addressed Kueng and called for a maximum sentence.
“Mr. Thao, as you watched my love being suffocated under the knee of your co-officer, I will never forget you saying to the onlookers, ‘This is why you don’t do drugs,'” said Ross, citing video played at the officers’ trial.
Thao’s lawyer, Robert Paule, described Thao as “a decent person who was just trying to do his job.”
Thao gave a statement in court, telling Magnuson he found God after being arrested in Floyd’s death and saying that he had learned to lean on his faith.
Prosecutors said Kueng, Thao and Lane, who was also a rookie cop, all failed to intervene as the handcuffed, unarmed 46-year-old Black man was pinned under the knee of their senior officer, Derek Chauvin, for more than nine minutes on May 25, 2020, outside a Minneapolis convenience store where Floyd was accused of using a phony $20 bill to buy cigarettes.
Thao and Kueng were also convicted of violating Floyd’s right to be free of an unreasonable seizure by willfully failing to intervene to prevent Chauvin from applying bodily injury to Floyd.
Prosecutors had requested a “substantially higher” federal sentence than Lane’s, but far less than what Chauvin received.
Chauvin was sentenced on Thursday by Magnuson to serve 21 years in prison after pleading guilty in December to violating Floyd’s civil rights and admitting he kept his knee on Floyd’s neck even after he became unresponsive. Chauvin also pleaded guilty to depriving a then-14-year-old boy of his constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by an officer, which resulted in bodily injury to the teen, according to the Justice Department.
Magnuson also sentenced Lane.
The length of the sentences for Kueng and Thao are lower than the recommended federal sentencing guidelines, which called for 4 1/4 years to 5 1/4 years.
“The facts of this case do not amount to second-degree murder under federal law,” Magnuson wrote in a ruling last week. “Defendants Kueng and Thao each made a tragic misdiagnosis in their assessment of Mr. Floyd.”
Magnuson noted that Kueng and Thao believed Floyd was suffering from a drug overdose and “excited delirium” — a syndrome in which a subject displays wild agitation and violent behavior that can sometimes lead to death.
Lane was the only police officer involved in Floyd’s fatal arrest to express concern for the man’s well-being. Police body-camera video played at the three former officers’ federal trial captured Lane asking twice if they should roll Floyd onto his side from a prone position to help ease his breathing.
Chauvin, 46, was also convicted in state court in April 2021 on charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced in June 2021 by Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill to 22 1/2 years in state prison.
Chauvin will serve his sentence in federal prison concurrently with his state sentence.
Lane also pleaded guilty to state charges of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors agreed to dismiss the top charge against him of aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional murder. Lane is awaiting his sentence in state court.
Kueng and Thao are scheduled to be put on trial in state court on Oct. 24 on charges of aiding and abetting in murder and aiding and abetting in manslaughter. They have both pleaded not guilty.
Benjamin Greene and Nazly Ortiz are seen in a video retweeted by the Harris County Sheriff’s Dept. The two people charged in a wild road rage shooting that was caught on camera. – Harris County Sheriff’s Dept./Twitter
(HOUSTON) — Two people have been arrested in Texas following an alleged road rage incident involving a 2-year-old on Tuesday just north of Houston on I-45.
Video of the encounter shows one man slamming his hands onto a silver Toyota Camry as a woman fired a gun into the car’s window while a man and child were inside.
As the car sped away, the woman was seen firing a second shot at the vehicle.
The suspects then rush to get back into their black pickup truck, the video showed.
Benjamin Greene and Nataly Ortiz were arrested and booked in Harris County Jail on Tuesday night, according to officials.
Greene has been charged with aggravated assault and Ortiz was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon later that day, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.
The judge did not set bail for either suspect in probable cause court. He left the decision to the judge in the 182nd court, where both suspects are now assigned.
The victim told ABC News Houston station KTRK that a bullet grazed his head.
Gonzalez said the victim was taken to the hospital for the graze wound.
The victim told KTRK the 2-year-old inside the vehicle was his nephew, who was hit by shattered glass, but is OK.
Gonzalez said a nearby car dealership was also hit by one of Ortiz’s shots, but no one was injured.
It is not known when Greene and Ortiz will appear again in court.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office has not yet responded to ABC News’ request for comment.
On Monday, an 8-year-old boy was injured in a road rage incident in a Dallas suburb. A suspect has not yet been identified by police.
(NEW YORK) — Deaf Broadway returns to Lincoln Center, following the 2021 production of Into the Woods, featuring an entirely deaf cast. This year they perform Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, the chilling story following “the demon barber of Fleet Street.”
Just as last year, they’ll perform the show completely in American Sign Language in front of a screen broadcasting a filmed version.
The cast takes the stage July 31, the final day of disability pride month, celebrating the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act in July 1990. Showtime is 7:30 p.m.
Miranda Hoffner works in the accessibility department of Lincoln Center.
“We’re excited to center that in the month of July and really focus on deaf and disabled artists and then how to make sure that anyone can go to anything they’re interested in at Lincoln Center at any time and have their needs met, but accessibility has been part of Lincoln Center story since its founding,” she said of her work at Lincoln Center.
Hoffner says the accessibility department prioritizes making their productions enjoyable for all people, regardless of disability. This season they employed “haptic feedback,” which allows audiences to feel the music through their skin.
“Audience members are able to wear a backpack that sort of goes along their spine, very lightweight, and then wristbands and ankle bands and they pulse all five octaves,” she said. “It’s like really, really amazing to be able to feel music and take in music in another way.”
Hoffner also shares that the halls of Lincoln Center are wheelchair accessible and that they offer captioning on personal devices and even visual descriptions for those who are blind.
This Sunday, they expect members of the deaf community, disability community and theatre and Sondheim fans alike to attend the production.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden tested negative for COVID-19 on Tuesday night and again Wednesday morning and will end “his strict isolation measures,” according to the physician to the president, Dr. Kevin O’Connor.
The negative test comes less than one week after the president’s first positive test on Thursday morning.
Biden finished his five-day course of Paxlovid 36 hours ago, O’Connor wrote in a memo Wednesday morning that was subsequently released by the White House.
“His symptoms have been steadily improving, and are almost completely resolved,” O’Connor wrote.
In remarks later Wednesday morning from the Rose Garden, Biden called his recovery a “real statement of where we are in the fight against COVID-19.”
“Even if you get COVID, you can avoid winding up with a severe case. You can now prevent most COVID deaths, and that’s because of three free tools the Biden administration has invested in and distributed this past year: booster shots, at-home tests [and] easy-to-use, effective treatments. We got through COVID with no fear, I got through it with no fear, a very mild discomfort because of these essential, life-saving tools,” he said.
“COVID was killing thousands of Americans a day when I got here. That isn’t the case anymore. You can live without fear by doing what I did, get boosted, get tested and get treatment. At the same time, my administration remains vigilant. Right now, we have the tools to keep you from getting severely ill or dying from COVID, but we’re not stopping there,” he added.
His comments mark a continuation of the White House’s message that while the coronavirus is here to stay — something many public health experts have long been warning and fighting against — life can go largely back to normal for many, if not all, Americans.
“Let’s keep emerging from one of the darkest moments of our history with hope and light for what can come,” Biden said.
The president likely had the highly contagious BA.5 subvariant, and his symptoms had included a runny nose, cough, sore throat, a slight fever and body aches. O’Connor never reported any abnormalities in Biden’s pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate or oxygen saturation throughout his infection.
Biden told reporters Monday that all his test results were “good” and “on the button.”
Biden is ending his strict isolation measures after being confined to the White House residence since his diagnosis. He will continue to wear a “well-fitting” mask as needed for 10 days.
He worked while in isolation, posting a photograph on Twitter Monday of him and his dog, Commander, saying he “took some calls this morning with man’s best co-worker.”
The president tweeted a picture of his negative test on Wednesday and said that he’s returning to the Oval Office.
Biden “continues to be very specifically conscientious to protect any of the Executive Residence, White House, Secret Service and other staff whose duties require any (albeit socially distanced) proximity to him,” O’Connor wrote in his memo on Wednesday.
Biden will increase his testing cadence in light of the possibility of a Paxlovid “rebound,” O’Connor wrote, referring to a seemingly rare but increasingly reported phenomenon in which COVID symptoms recur or there is the development of a new positive viral test after having tested negative.
The president is fully vaccinated and has received two booster shots, but at the age of 79 was considered to be at a higher risk for severe illness.
Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, stressed after Biden’s diagnosis that all Americans should take advantage of vaccinations and treatments courses.
“This is a president who’s double-vaccinated, double-boosted, getting treatments that are widely available to Americans and has at this moment a mild respiratory illness,” Jha told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “This is really good news, and this is both vaccines and treatments that are available to everyone. Really important that people go out and get vaccinated and avail themselves of these treatments if they get infected.”
First lady Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris both tested negative for COVID-19 after spending time with the president before his diagnosis.
ABC News’ Ben Gittleson, Alexandra Hutzler and Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.
(ST. PAUL, Minn.) — The first of two former police officers convicted on federal charges in the death of George Floyd was sentenced to prison Wednesday.
Former Minneapolis police officer J. Alexander Kueng was ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson to serve three years in federal prison, followed by two years of supervised release, according to ABC affiliate station KSTP in St. Paul.
Kueng’s former police colleague, Tou Thao, is scheduled to learn his fate from Magnuson at a second hearing on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Prior to sentencing Kueng, Floyd’s cousin Sabrina Montgomery and his girlfriend, Courtney Ross, gave victim impact statements.
Ross addressed Kueng directly with compassion, telling him, “this sentence will not define you” and urging him to “define your purpose,” KSTP reported.
“This does not mean you cannot find your footing to stand up for what’s right in the future,” Ross told Kueng.
Montgomery asked Magnuson to give both Kueng and Thao the maximum sentence.
“All of these men deserve to serve longer sentences,” Montgomery said, according to KSTP. “The system these officers operated in is flawed, but again, where is their humanity?”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Manda Sertich told Magnuson that Kueng admitted during his trial testimony that he was aware that it was his duty to intervene, but he failed to act.
“All he had to do per MPD policy was attempt to intervene,” Sertich said, according to KSTP.
Kueng declined to make a statement in court before he was sentenced. But his attorney, Thomas Plunkett, spoke on his behalf, telling Magnuson, “He’s a nice young man that attempted to help the community by taking on a difficult role … and now he’s being sentenced for that.”
Both Kueng, 28, and Thao, 35, were convicted by a federal jury in February along with their former police colleague Thomas Lane, 39, who received a sentence last week of 2 1/2 years in prison for violating Floyd’s civil rights.
Federal prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 6 1/2 years for Lane, which according to federal sentencing guidelines, was the maximum.
All three men were convicted of using the “color of the law,” or their positions as police officers, to deprive Floyd of his civil rights by willfully being indifferent to his serious medical needs.
Prosecutors said the three officers failed to intervene as the handcuffed, unarmed 46-year-old Black man was pinned under the knee of their senior officer, Derek Chauvin, for more than nine minutes on May 25, 2020, outside a Minneapolis convenience store where Floyd was accused of using a phony $20 bill to buy cigarettes.
Thao and Kueng were also convicted of violating Floyd’s right to be free of an unreasonable seizure by willfully failing to intervene to prevent Chauvin from applying bodily injury to Floyd.
Prosecutors had requested a “substantially higher” federal sentence than Lane’s, but far less than what Chauvin received.
Chauvin was sentenced on Thursday by Magnuson to serve 21 years in prison after pleading guilty in December to violating Floyd’s civil rights and admitting he kept his knee on Floyd’s neck even after he became unresponsive. Chauvin also pleaded guilty to depriving a then-14-year-old boy of his constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by an officer, which resulted in bodily injury to the teen, according to the Justice Department.
Magnuson also sentenced Lane.
The length of Kueng’s sentence is lower than the recommended federal sentencing guidelines, which called for 4 1/4 years to 5 1/4 years.
“The facts of this case do not amount to second-degree murder under federal law,” Magnuson wrote in a ruling last week. “Defendants Kueng and Thao each made a tragic misdiagnosis in their assessment of Mr. Floyd.”
Magnuson noted that Kueng and Thao believed Floyd was suffering from a drug overdose and “excited delirium” — a syndrome in which a subject displays wild agitation and violent behavior that can sometimes lead to death.
Lane was the only police officer involved in Floyd’s fatal arrest to express concern for the man’s well-being. Police body-camera video played at the three former officers’ federal trial captured Lane asking twice if they should roll Floyd onto his side from a prone position to help ease his breathing.
Chauvin, 46, was also convicted in state court in April 2021 on charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced in June 2021 by Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill to 22 1/2 years in state prison.
Chauvin will serve his sentence in federal prison concurrently with his state sentence.
Lane also pleaded guilty to state charges of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors agreed to dismiss the top charge against him of aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional murder. Lane is awaiting his sentence in state court.
Kueng and Thao are scheduled to be put on trial in state court on Oct. 24 on charges of aiding and abetting in murder and aiding and abetting in manslaughter. They have both pleaded not guilty.
